Snowfall is an annual occurrence in much of the United States and the rest of the world. Although accumulated snow is more readily disposed of on roadways, driveways, walks and the like, the unwanted accumulation of snow on commercial, industrial and municipal flat roof buildings and other flat structures often becomes a serious problem in northern climates. The weight of accumulated snow and stress on building roofs can and often does result in costly damage to structural roof members and precipitates the need for costly roof repairs. If left unattended, accumulated snowfall on building roofs can and often does lead to roof collapse along with an obvious significant safety risk. In addition, snow accumulation on commercial, industrial and municipal flat roofs that frequently have major public activity around the perimeter of such buildings is dangerous because of the risk of falling snow and ice.
Removing accumulated snow on a large flat roof buildings is labor-intensive, time consuming, costly and dangerous. Removing snow from the center of a large flat roof is especially difficult and challenging given the distance that the snow must be transported to get it off the roof.
Various attempts or removing snow accumulation from flat building roofs have been tried. One approach involves heating hoses around the roof surface and moving them around periodically in order to melt the snow in the hopes of draining the melted snow down roof drains. Although sometimes effective, this process is costly and requires much mechanical equipment and physical effort and in some instances can create more complications from mechanical failure, the clogging of drains, or the freezing of water on the roof like a lake.
Another approach involves the use of snow shovels for shoveling, pushing, carrying and throwing the snow off the roof. This approach requires many shovels and many users to exert tremendous effort, time and energy to remove the snow and throw it or push it from the roof edge. This is dangerous to the worker on the roof in terms of falling or sliding off the roof as well as dangerous to those passersby underneath who might be hit from falling snow.
A still further approach involves the use of a snow blower to blow the snow off the roof. A snow blower includes a gas or electric motor to gather and throw the snow off the roof. A drawback exists with this method also in that snow blowers are typically heavy and difficult to get to the roof or most importantly, the snow blower only throws the snow a maximum distance which is a challenge when trying to remove snow from the middle of a large roof.
Accordingly, what is needed is a hand powered safe, easy to operate snow removal device which is less time-consuming to use to clear a large area and requires less physical energy to remove significant quantities of snow from generally flat roof and other surfaces.